Peggle HD, developed in PopCap Games’ Dublin studio, scoops BAFTA

The 2012 GAME British Academy Video Games Awards (or BAFTA) recognised PopCap Games’ Dublin studio, naming its game Peggle HD as the best game in its Mobile and Handheld category.

The BAFTA awards recognised the top games of 2012 in an award ceremony at the London Hilton on Friday hosted by Irish comedian Dara O Briain.

The mobile game was developed in PopCap Games’ studio in Dublin. Paul O’Donnell, lead software engineer of Peggle HD collected the award at the ceremony.

"Winning a BAFTA is a huge honour and a particular point of pride for PopCap’s Dublin studio," said JP Vaughan, associate producer of Peggle HD.

"We had so much fun working on Peggle HD and we are delighted to see that fun recognised in the final game,” said Vaughan.

BAFTA winners

Portal 2 was the big winner of the evening, earning awards for Best Game, Design and Story.

LittleBigPlanet 2 won awards in the Family and Game Innovation Category. Batman: Arkham City won an award in the Action category and actor Mark Hamill won an award for best performer for his role as The Joker in the game. Hamill is best known for his performance as protagonist Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Battlefield 3 won awards in both the Online Multiplayer and the Audio Achievement categories. It also won the GAME Award of 2011, the only category voted by the public, gaining 230,000 votes.

Three groups of students and recent graduates also competed in the BAFTA Ones to Watch Award in association with Dare to be Digital. They each designed a new game prototype. The winning game was Tick Tock Toys, designed by Swallowtail.